Bank Execs Good, Auto Execs Baaad

-- by Dave Johnson

In Bankers Will Say It Is Bankers the other day I tried to say that people see the world through a lens shaped by what they know.

Bankers will say the economic crisis is a banking problem. Bankers think banks are very, very important to the economy -- the most important component.

. . .Of course, a plumber would say that the problem with the economy is that all the pipes are clogged. Keeping the pipes working is the most important component of our economy.

And a historian will tell you that the problem is a return of the Great Depression. Not repeating the Great Depression is the most important thing to the economy.

A manufacturing base is the foundation of a country's economy. During WWII the auto companies stopped making cars, and rapidly ramped up to make the planes and military vehicles that won the war. When Eisenhower became President he brought automobile executives into his cabinet and they brought in other executives to formulate and execute policies in their departments. And they did what auto executives know. They built the Interstate highway system, for example -- an investment that led to generations of return for all of us.

But Obama brought in bankers, and we're seeing the results.

Update - This post in no way is meant to praise the current crop of American auto execs who brought us SUVs and refused to develop hybrids and electrics. No way!

Posted by Dave Johnson at March 30, 2009 10:43 AM